Psychology of learning

The psychology of learning refers to theories and research on how individuals learn. There are many theories of learning. Some take on a more constructive approach which focuses on inputs and reinforcements. Other approaches, such as neuroscience and social cognition, focus more on how the brain's organization and structure influence learning. Some psychological approaches, such as social behaviorism, focus more on one's interaction with the environment and with others.

History

Early approaches

Prior to the 1950s, psychological learning theory varied across countries.

In America, there was a strong emphasis on behaviorism, which focused on exploring observable behavior. Learning mechanisms were often tested on animals. Sigmund Freud's work on psychoanalysis and John Dewey's theories on schooling and learning were also major influences during this time. Skinner viewed human behavior as determined by an individual's interactions with one's environment.

1970s and beyond

During the 1970s, learning began to be viewed as an integral part of life and the world as it started to be seen as a part of personal and social enrichment. Concepts such as lifelong learning and adult education started to appear as people began to view learning as a daily process throughout life.

Kenneth Gergen introduced the social constructionism approach, which posits that individuals construct mental structures from their social connections and environment.

Experiential learning, described by David Kolb, defines learning as an iterative process of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation. Robert Kegan established a constructive-developmental approach that expands upon Piaget's stages of child development into a lifelong process that includes adulthood.

Psychologists and learning theorists

Socrates

Socrates (469-399 B.C.) introduced a method of learning known as piloting, through which one arrives at one's own answers through power of reasoning. Socrates, in dialogue with Meno, taught this method by teaching a slave boy who knew nothing about Euclidean geometry the Pythagorean theorem. He did so by asking questions or rephrasing them until the correct answer was found. Socrates strongly supported the idea that knowledge is innate and can be found from within, a concept known as anamnesis.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850—1909) examined learning by studying rote memory and forgetting. With himself as his own experimental subject, he used meaningless syllables to form lists that he read several times until he could restate them with high accuracy. He also attempted to recall the same lists with delays of a few days or months and then recorded his discoveries as learning curves and forgetting curves. According to this theory, humans and other animals learn behaviors through trial-and-error methods. Once a functioning solution is found, these behaviors are likely to be repeated during the same or similar task.

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849–1936), a Russian physiologist, contributed to research on learning. Knowing that a hungry dog salivates when food is present, he trained dogs to salivate to an arbitrary external stimuli. This was done by pairing a natural stimulus (such as food) with a novel stimulus (e.g., a metronome) to provoke the desired response in dogs. That proved his thesis that he could make a dog salivate by just the presentation of the sound of a bell. Pavlov's behavioristic approach to learning became known as classical conditioning.

John Broadus Watson

John Broadus Watson (1878–1958) also used this method of learning (e.g., he caused a young child, not previously afraid of furry animals, to become frightened of them) and argued that it was sufficient for the science of psychology, specifically behaviorism. Watson is often referred to as being the founder of the school of behaviorism. From 1920 to 1960, this school influenced a great deal of North American psychology. John Watson may also be known as one of the biggest contributors to marketing and advertising, using his knowledge about behaviorism to predict and control responses from the consumers.

Burrhus F. Skinner

Burrhus F. Skinner (1904-1990) developed operant conditioning, in which specific behaviors resulted from stimuli, which caused them to appear more or less frequently. By the 1920s, John B. Watson's ideas had become popular and influential in the world of psychology and classical conditioning was being explored by other behaviorists. Skinner was one of these behaviorists. He thought that in order to understand behavior we needed to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this operant conditioning. Skinner is referred to as the father of operant conditioning but his theory stems from the works presented by Edward Thorndike.

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget is known for his theory of cognitive development that describes how children create a mental model of the world around them. His theory is important because it is one of the first theories that disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a steadfast trait. His theory sees cognitive development as something that happens because of biological maturation and one's interaction with their surrounding environment. Piaget did not want to measure a child's knowledge, like an I.Q. score, instead he focused on how children did with fundamental concepts. Piaget's theory has four stages. The sensorimotor stage which is birth to 18–24 months. The preoperational stage is toddler ages (18–24 months) to early childhood, age 7. The concrete operational stage, ages 7 to 12. Then the formal operation stage which is adolescence to adulthood. Before Piaget's theory it was believed that children were just less competent thinkers but this theory and his stages helped to show that children think in significantly differently ways than adults do.

Lev Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky is best known for his theory in cognitive development known as social development theory. Vygotsky was developing his theories of cognitive development around the same time that Jean Piaget was developing his theories. Vygotsky believed that social interaction plays a critical role in cognitive development. He places a large emphasis on culture and how it affects cognitive development. He also sees the importance of adults in cognitive development in children. Vygotsky says that development cannot be understood without referring back to the social and also the cultural context in which it is embedded. Vygotsky claimed that learning occurs via skillful interaction in which the child is with someone who models behaviors or gives instructions for the child to follow, most likely a parent or a teacher. The child tries to understand the instructions or actions provided and then stores the information so they can use it to guide their future performances. Piaget's theory says that a child's development must follow their learning, Vygotsky disagreed with this. He believed that social learning tends to come before development.

Psychology of learning theories

Learning theories are attempts to better understand and explain learning processes. There are several different theories that account for learning.

Neuroscience

The neuroscience of learning focuses on the relationships among the central nervous system, learning, and behavior. These neurons communicate and form connections, also called consolidation, to form a person's cognition. Hence, learning, from a neuroscience perspective, focuses on how the organization of this neural network changes through the use and reception of information. Motivation, a psychological component related to learning, also has an explanation through neuroscience. Overall, the brain has a disposition towards rewards and outcomes related to pleasure. In fact, it brings out certain chemicals and opiates that give a natural high increasing a person's motivation. This theory claims that the consequences from behaviors will determine future behavior. Consequences to behavior that are positive, and therefore reinforcing, will increase the corresponding behavior. However, consequences that are punishing will decrease behavior. For instance, learning can occur purely through observation, where a person can gain knowledge of a concept or acquire an understanding of a rule, attitude, beliefs, without actually acting out any of these respective ideas. While there is no single information processing theory, there are several theories that can be categorized about information processing theory. To elaborate, information about your environment is collected through your senses. This information is then entered into your STM, also called working memory (WM). From the STM, some of this information is rehearsed and eventually encoded into the LTM where it is then stored permanently.

While these theories can be traced back to gestalt psychology, many of these theories were influenced by the rise of technology, neuroscience, and communications. Constructivists believe that knowledge is created within and reject the idea of pre-existing scientific knowledge waiting to be discovered. With that in mind, constructivists argue that learning needs to be structured so that they challenge students to make sense of new knowledge.

The sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to around age 2, is when children act spontaneously to make sense of their world. Much of these actions are sensory in nature (e.g. touching) and rooted in present action. The preoperational stage occurs between ages 2 to 7 and is categorized by children being able to reflect briefly on the past and imagine the future. Led by psychologist Lev Vygotsky, social constructivism has a more sociocultural approach. This approach argues that the social environment facilitates learning through certain tools such objects, language, and organizations. Through these tools, cognitive learning occurs when the people interact with these tools socially and internalize them.

A major concept within social constructivism is the zone of proximal development (ZPD). ZPD represents the potential amount of learning a student can have given the right environmental conditions. This model suggests that the teacher and student work together to further the student's learning. Educational examples of this include instructional scaffolding and apprenticeships where the educator takes an invested and active role in furthering the knowledge of the student. Self-worth theory also plays a role in learning as students and individuals are motivated to learn and achieve because of their desire to maintain their perception of being high achieving.

Attribution theory, which discusses how people perceive and attribute a certain behavior or outcome to a certain characteristic, also relates to motivation and learning. According to Bernie Weiner's attribution model, students attribute their academic achievement based on effort, ability, and luck. The way an individual attributes his or her academic performance will determine that person's level of motivation.

Various types of motivation also play a role particularly intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is an inherent type of motivation that one engages as an end to itself. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is a motivation that is provided externally such as external awards or punishments. Research has shown that incentives which reward task engagement lowers intrinsic motivation as it is much like controlling behavior. However, rewards related to one's performance are more effective which can help further one's skill, motivation, and self-efficacy.

References

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